Arun Tikku was killed at his apartment in Mumbai's Lokhandwala area on the night of 7 April 2012.
A witness, Harangad Singh Maini, said he saw an elderly man calling for help from a first-floor window while another person attacked him with a sharp weapon.
Maini said that he and security guards went to the flat, where two men were seen with blood on their clothing.
Police found Arun Tikku's body in the bathroom and said the men had escaped through a broken bathroom window.
Police said the final call on the victim's phone had been with his son, actor Anuj Tikku, leading investigators initially to seek him.
Police later detained Anuj Tikku and a man he knew as Karan Sood near Chiplun while they were travelling towards Goa.
Anuj Tikku said he had no knowledge of the killing and believed he was travelling with a friend.
Police said the man presented to Anuj as Karan Sood was actually Vijay Palande, while a woman introduced as Palande's sister was his wife, Seema Dusanj.
Police said Palande had portrayed himself as the owner of an overseas hotel business and had shown interest in Anuj Tikku's assets.
Police alleged that Anuj Tikku was the intended target and that the plan was to obtain control of his property documents before killing him in Goa.
Investigators alleged that the plan changed after Arun Tikku came to Mumbai and began reviewing tenants' paperwork, leaving him alone in the flat.
Police said they recovered a purported suicide note bearing Anuj Tikku's name from a bank locker linked to Palande.
Anuj Tikku said he had been made to write the note after being given beer mixed with drugs, an assertion not independently established in the supplied evidence.